Small-size, big performance, exhaust gas emission scrubbers by Green Tech Marine were recently installed by Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) in their Pride of America, following on the heels of an earlier pilot installation aboard Royal Caribbeans’ Liberty of the Seas. The scrubbers will be installed in March during the ship’s dry- docking in Pearl Harbor Naval shipyard to replace the ships silencers and clean the exhaust of four 8 MW engines, in what the manufacturers claim to be the biggest marine scrubber installation in the world at this time.
'Pride of America': Photo credit Wikimedia CCL 2
Paraphrasing Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘To scrub, or not to scrub, that is the question’ … For to be legal and comply with reduced SOX emission limits, in Emission Control Areas (ECA’s) ships can either operate on low-sulphur residual and distillate fuels or fit exhaust gas treatment systems (EGTS) otherwise known as SOX scrubbers. These systems clean ... [More]

St. Lawrence – Great Lakes Seaway shipping line Algoma Central Marine is spending $300 million on new ships, including six that will be 45% more fuel efficient per cargo tonne/kilometre than existing vessels. These ‘Equinox-class’ lakers provide Wärtsilä with a $12 million ground-breaking order for complete propulsion packages that come with fully integrated fresh water scrubber systems. The lakers to be delivered by China’s Nantong Mingde Heavy Industrial Stock Company shipyard over the next couple of years are designed to lift 30,000 dwt of bulk cargo, wheat and ore, for carriage through the seaway to the American heartland in ‘Lakers’ hallmark slim 225 m long hulls.
Algoma Equinox-class Laker: Image credit – Algoma Central Corporation
Replacement of the St Lawrence Seaway FleetsThe big three fleet operators, Algoma Central, Canada Steamship Lines and Fednav, all with relatively elderly ships, have been s... [More]

Pipework typically needs to be replaced two or three times during the lifetime of a ship, but arising from recent advances in manufacturing technology there are alternatives to ferrous metal pipework. Dubai-based multinational manufacturers Future Pipe Industries (FPI), who are in the forefront of this developing technology, assert that their GRE (Glass Fibre Reinforced Epoxy) pipes will last the whole lifetime of the ship.
Pipework Safety Issues
Pipes remain unnoticed as they go quietly about their business, which is mainly to convey fluid of some kind (air and gas too) throughout a labyrinth of pipework that invades almost every space in the ship, and which, according to a jointly authored paper by Standard P&I Mutual Insurance Club and RINA, is a system like no other with such enormous potential to cause fire, pollution, and flooding.
Examining the causes of accidents involving burst and leaking pipes, classification society DNV judged that corrosion was one of the majo... [More]